


Past Chapters

by butterflycell



Series: A Whole Other Book [1]
Category: Suits (TV)
Genre: Backstory, Gen, Minorly Cracky, Pre-Canon, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-06
Updated: 2012-05-06
Packaged: 2017-11-04 23:11:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/399244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butterflycell/pseuds/butterflycell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harvey had always been unusual in the world of corporate law - a Harvard educated attorney with street smarts and no airs or graces. It was all down to his upbringing, that much was certain. And what if there's more to his belief in Mike than meets the eye?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Past Chapters

**Author's Note:**

> Massive thankyou to Luvinjrandsmoke for calling me out on Americanisms I missed (as always)!!
> 
> This is something that popped into head when I was trying to get to sleep a couple of nights ago. It's seriously cracky, but I hope you find it as interesting a concept as I did! Enjoy =]

_Harvey checked the sheet. The next guy up was some Rick Sorkin. He was the same as all the ones before him, uniformly vanilla – except that Harvey had always liked vanilla, so he found the comparison a little unfair.  
  
But that didn't change the fact that this guy was, on paper, identical to every other Harvard douche he'd met over the years. He was honest-to-God exhausted already and he hadn't even interviewed half of the applicants yet.  
  
With a sigh, he bolstered himself and paced over to the door, ready for yet another grimace from Donna. When he saw her nod and the following wink, it was safe to say he was... surprised. The kid walked in, shook his hand and did his general best to cover up the fact that his heart was racing and he was flush from exertion. It was clear that he wasn't like the others – cheap suit, rough manners, distracted – and Harvey thought there was something familiar about him, that he couldn't quite face.  
  
When his briefcase popped open, weed going all over the floor, Harvey just smirked. But then the kid look up, stammering for an excuse and recognition hit Harvey in the chest like a cannon ball. _  
  
*  
  
When Harvey was eight, his Dad announced that he was leaving to be with another woman. He'd just walked in the door of the apartment, standing stiffly on the welcome mat. He didn't beat around the bush, didn't dull the edges – he just said it.  
  
Harvey was watching TV with his little brother, his Mom walking in from the kitchen at the sound of the door. Harvey twisted in his seat to stare at them both and he'd seen the quick, sharp flash of grief in his mother's face before she smoothed it over with steely determination. A silence had started to well between them all and Harvey watched his father nod, finally, and head to his parents' bedroom.  
  
He appeared ten minutes later, suitcase in hand, and walked over to the couch. He hugged Harvey hard, then Aaron and with a murmur of a promise to them, he left the apartment and their lives. Aaron was only four when it happened and for days, Harvey had to tell him that 'Dad isn't coming home.'  
  
-  
  
Harvey had long since decided that the year that followed was the worst of his life. It was filled with court hearings and lawyers and endless plays for his attention and it was all he could do to keep Aaron away from their father's increasingly frustrated requests.  
  
He suspected, in the end, that the judge in charge of the custody dispute, had made his decision based on Harvey's interview. At nine years old, after months and months of emotional fighting, he'd developed a way to counteract the adults, to get them to stop in their tracks and pay attention to him. He'd done it with the judge, assuring him that staying in New York with their mother was easily the best course of action. Harvey was almost finished at elementary school, Aaron had settled into kindergarten, his mother had a steady job and they had a support network that both boys were comfortable in.  
  
Whether it was the shock of Harvey's maturity about the issue or the fact that his argument was more watertight than anything his parents' attorneys had proposed, he didn't know. All he could say for certain was that it had worked.  
  
They'd gone home that night with everything finally over. His father had rights to them every other weekend, but he was moving to Seattle, so the likelihood of having to endure those days was minimal.  
  
Harvey had sat in Aaron's room, back against the wall as his mother read him a story that night. When she was finished, she'd shut the light off and ruffled his hair as they left the room. She'd wrapped him in a warm hug and thanked him and Harvey saw her smile properly for the first time in almost a year.  
  
-  
  
The following summer, the empty place down the hall was taken by a young couple. Harvey had come home from baseball practice one day to find his new neighbours carrying boxes from a small, rented van up to the third floor.  
  
The woman was stopped on the first landing, box balanced against the handrail and Harvey noticed that she was several months pregnant. He'd tapped her on the shoulder, offering to take the box off her with the most charming grin he could muster. She'd laughed at him and said they should carry it together – which proved to a good idea when Harvey realised that it wasn't as light at he'd originally thought.  
  
They dropped the box in the middle of the empty lounge and Harvey was just wondering whether he should get Mr. Jones from next door to help out when the woman's husband walked in, announcing that he was carrying the last of them. He'd grinned at Harvey, thanking him for the help and Harvey had shrugged.  
  
“I'm Harvey, Harvey Specter – I live a couple of doors down, 305.” He held his hand out and the man shook it firmly with such a genuine look on his face that Harvey couldn't help but trust him.  
  
“I'm Charlie Ross, and this is Laura – it's great to meet you!” Harvey smiled back and Charlie shot him a salute as he made his excuses and headed home.  
  
He let himself in, his Mom calling out from the kitchen. He went in to tell her about his day, about practice and about their new neighbours. She'd smiled at him and squeezed his arm gently in approval, wondering out loud whether she should invite them over for dinner sometime.  
  
The next day, when he got in from a friend's house, he found Charlie and Laura sitting on their couch, chatting with his Mom with Aaron peering round the door of his bedroom and down the hall. Harvey had said 'hi' to them and gone to dump his stuff in his room before dinner.  
  
-  
  
In the middle of the following October, Harvey was woken in the middle of the night by a furious pounding at the door. He was awake in moments, standing in the lounge as his Mom opened their front door.  
  
Charlie was standing there in a blind panic, stammering about what things he needed to take somewhere and Harvey slowly realised that Laura had gone into labour. His Mom had put a calming hand on Charlie's shoulder and guided him back down the hall. Harvey stayed there, keeping one eye on the front door and one on Aaron's room. Waiting for his Mom to come back.  
  
After about twenty minutes, she slipped back in with a tired smile and hugged him quickly, telling him to go back to bed. Harvey had nodded and returned to his room.  
  
A couple of days later, he'd come home from baseball to find himself beckoned into Charlie and Laura's apartment, his Mom on the couch with a snuffling lump of baby in her arms. Harvey had hesitated, but Charlie yanked him over by his sleeve and he found himself frowning at the wrinkled, red thing in the blue blanket.  
  
“Harvey, this is Michael.” Charlie grinned and wrapped an arm around Laura. Harvey smiled back. The content happiness in their faces and body language was infectious and he found himself starting to see why his Mom was so absorbed with the little boy.  
  
-  
  
Over the next few years, things fell into a pattern of sorts. Things began to settle in Harvey's life and he found that the easing turbulence had uncovered a path for him. He threw himself into school and sport, especially when he reached junior high, and before he knew it, he was put in gifted and talented classes for the bulk of his subjects.  
  
He kept an eye on Aaron whenever he could, confronting the father of a bully at one point, and teaching him to how to stand up for what he wanted.  
  
They saw their Dad once or twice, at Thanksgiving or Christmas, but it was clear that he'd made a new life and Harvey wanted nothing to do with it. He didn't care that he was marrying the other woman, or that they were expecting a child. Aaron had levelled a stare at him until their Dad was so uncomfortable he looked away and Harvey had discreetly high-fived him under the table.  
  
Down the hall, the Ross' had become a regular feature in Harvey's life. He often came home to find Laura and his Mom drinking coffee, Mike playing with rapidly more complicated toys on the floor. Once every couple of weeks, Harvey or his Mom would babysit for them, giving the couple a night off.  
  
Mike was all wide eyes and blond hair, staring at the world around him like it was something to be figured out. At about two years old, he was starting to read books that were at least first grade level and Harvey suspected that great things would come of him. He only ever did puzzles once – occasionally twice – and when Harvey showed him a memory game with buttons that flashed in different orders that had to be echoed, Mike was mystified for a good half hour.  
  
-  
  
The summer after Harvey's first year in high school, he spent working a part time job coaching the local little league team. The two things he did outside of class were debate team and baseball – and when it came to groups of little kids jostling for batting order, both skills proved highly useful.  
  
He'd tried getting Aaron into sports and whilst they happily spent their afternoons and evenings watching whatever game they could find on the TV, he had absolutely no interest in playing anything other than playing the piano their Mom had finally bought him. It had taken almost two years of pleading and going to lessons every single week, but she'd finally given in. Harvey was pretty sure that the piano was all Aaron wanted out of life and the look on his face when he'd first seen one of his very own had been worth the headaches.  
  
One afternoon towards the end of summer vacation, Harvey had picked Aaron up from the music store in town and walked him home after practice at the park. It had become a tradition of sorts: Aaron would save up every penny he could until he could afford another book of sheet music and Harvey would walk him to and from the store, trying not to smile at the way he'd hug the new, crisp book to him. If Harvey slipped a couple of bucks into his savings every so often, then neither of them mentioned it – but Harvey _would_ notice that Aaron practised particularly hard afterwards.  
  
One such afternoon, they'd headed back, Aaron running up the stairs and down the hall, eager to turn the inked notes into real music. Harvey just took his time. He had a bag filled with his sports gear slung across his back and the weather had been unusually fine with a slight breeze. It was an easy sort of day.  
  
Of course, when a small something shot out of the Ross' front door, bombing down the hall, it took all of Harvey's reactionary prowess to reach out and grab onto Mike _just_ as he as he tripped and came uncomfortably close to tumbling headfirst down the steps.  
  
He'd reached out and grabbed him by the bag on his back, hauling him back onto steady ground and inadvertently yanking the zipper on his bag open. Packets of animal crackers spilled out across the floor between them and he cocked an eyebrow as Mike stared at the mess and then up at him, blue eyes wider than he'd ever seen before, lip starting to tremble at the shock.  
  
Quickly, Harvey knelt down and started collecting the boxes together. After a moment, Mike copied him, clutching a box tightly as he crouched, eyes watching all of Harvey's movements.  
  
“Even _you_ can't eat all these.” He said gently, easing Mike's arms out of his bag and putting the spilled boxes back in. “What were you doing with them?”  
  
He looked at Mike, who tried to edge away, but Harvey raised an eyebrow and caught gently and the wrist. Mike stared at the floor.  
  
“Are these from your kitchen?” He asked, Mike nodding. “Were you going to give them to someone?”  
  
He nodded again, slower this time. He looked up slowly, feet shuffling again but Harvey tightened his hold a little until he stopped. Finally, his little shoulders slumped. “They took my markers.”  
  
Miked looked close to tears and Harvey remembered how excited he'd been when Charlie had come home with them a few weeks ago. He'd spent a particularly painful evening babysitting with Mike wanting to draw _everything_ in lurid, primary colours.  
  
“Who took them, Mike?” He asked, a little sterner this time.  
  
“Bobby... and Joe. Downstairs.” His voice was so quiet that Harvey almost didn't hear him, but he caught the names, knowing them from coaching at the park.  
  
“Here's what we're going to do.” He looked at Mike, smiling now and holding the bag out. The little boy took it carefully. “We're going to go put these back in the cupboard and I'm going to get your markers back for you, okay?”  
  
Mike nodded, eyes fixed seriously on Harvey's.  
  
“And we're going to keep this between us. There's no point worrying your Mom and Dad, right?” Harvey raised his eyebrows pointedly and Mike started to smile slowly, nodding quickly.  
  
Harvey guided him back to his front door and watched him sneak through to the the kitchen, sliding the contents of the bag back where they belonged. Harvey heard Laura call out from somewhere deeper in the apartment and Mike looked up and around, giving him a thumbs up before running out of view. Harvey pulled the door closed quietly and made a quick trip downstairs.  
  
A couple of days later, Harvey ran into Laura and Mike on the stairs, carrying their grocery shopping up from their car. He winked at Mike and took the bag off the little boy, slipping his markers into his hands instead, the transaction hidden beneath the bulky paper bags they were holding.  
  
-  
  
Mike started school in the fall and within a couple of months, he was being tested out of his ears, reading fifth grade level books and generally baffling his teachers. He fist bumped Harvey every time they passed on the stairs, brandishing yet another aced test paper.  
  
Harvey was doing similarly, his grades in every subject never dropping below ninety-five percent. He was Captain of the debate team and the baseball team, even finding time to take up boxing. His sights were fixed on college and he kept working with an almost single minded determination.  
  
-  
  
Everything changed in the fall after his sixteenth birthday.  
  
His Mom had started dating a guy, Robert, on a regular basis. He was nice enough, but Harvey didn't appreciate the way he spoke to him. He treated Harvey like a kid when he was smarter than most adults. He was taking AP classes in everything and already working on a strategy for college applications. The last thing he needed was some idiot patronising him – but his Mom liked him, so he put on his best face and tried not to do anything he might regret.  
  
It was late November when it happened. His Mom was out on a date and he was in charge of Aaron when Charlie knocked on the door. He looked exhausted.  
  
“Everything okay?” He'd asked, Charlie nodding tiredly.  
  
“Yeah, just had a tough case.” Charlie was a lawyer at a small firm in the city. “I'm sorry to dump this on you, but a last minute meeting came up that Laura and me need to go to and I couldn't get out of it.”  
  
“Need me to watch Mike?” Harvey smirked slightly and Charlie laughed, nodding. “No problem, just bring him over.”  
  
Charlie punched him lightly in the arm and a few minutes later, Mike was bouncing into the apartment. He did a circuit before homing back in to hug him Mom and Dad goodbye. Charlie and Laura smiled, kissing him on the cheek and forehead before telling him to be good and leaving.  
  
It was an hour or so later when he got the call.  
  
He picked up the phone, hearing a shakey, unsure voice on the other end. It was Charlie's mother, Mary, but she sounded wrong. The woman was a force to be reckoned with, getting into fierce, fascinating debates with him on the occasions they'd run into each other over the past few years. But now she sounded broken and Harvey felt sick. He listened as she told him where she was, that something had happened and could she bring Mike there as quickly as possible and in only a few minutes, Harvey had Aaron and Mike ready to go.  
  
Neither of them said a word in protest as he bundled them up and scrawled a note for his Mom to find when she got back. He grabbed a handful of notes from the jar in his room and five minutes later, they were in a cab to the hospital.  
  
-  
  
There was a joint funeral, a week later. Harvey and Aaron took the day off school and sitting in the church, Harvey saw Mike for the first time since that night. He looked pale, a little sick and far too old for a six year old. The kid had glanced at him at one point and Harvey had seen something missing from his gaze.  
  
Harvey didn't go to the wake afterwards. He didn't think he could handle the suffocating atmosphere of pity and sympathy that had begun to build as the curtains closed around the coffins. He didn't think he could look at Mike again and see the boy he'd become.  
  
Instead, he went to the gym and had it out with a punching bag until the place closed. By the time he got home, the Ross' apartment had already been emptied.  
  
-  
  
The next few years were a blur. He aced his exams and got into Columbia without breaking a sweat. Things settled once again, a rhythm building up that now included Robert more often than not. Aaron was winning awards left, right and centre for his music and was focussing all his efforts into scholarship programmes.  
  
Every so often, Harvey would look at his Mom and see something in her face that made him wonder just how much he and Aaron reflected their father. And now she was starting a whole new chapter of her life that just didn't seem to fit her sons like it had before. He and Aaron were their own people and, as much as he hated the way the thought formed in his head, he knew that he simply didn't need her in the same way anymore.  
  
After he moved away for college, his Mom and Aaron moved in with Robert and Harvey knew that the first chapter of his life was well and truly over.  
  
-  
  
Harvey was caught up in a vortex of assignments, exams and sports and before he knew it, he was graduating with honours.  
  
He sat in graduation, half listening to the speeches but mostly concentrating on how he'd make the next step. It was Harvard Law or nothing. There was no room for alternatives here. There was only one goal.  
  
-  
  
The next chapter opened on an unseasonably cold day, almost a year later, where he'd found himself standing in the lobby of the PearsonHardman building. He was locked in a heated debate over the legality of refusing to hand over a document with some guy who'd stopped him in his tracks on his way to deliver something to a partner in the firm.  
  
He looked in his forties, wealthy, arrogant and Harvey for the first time had found himself unable to keep himself under control. It might have been the months of poorly paid work and his crappy apartment, or it might have been the man's condescension, but he found his fists balled, his muscles tightening. It was almost the final straw, almost too much and Harvey had never felt as much despair and anger at himself as he did in that lobby.  
  
No sooner had he noticed himself readying to lunge than a hand grabbed him by the back of the collar and tugged him round the corner into an elevator. The woman didn't say word, didn't let go until they were sitting in her office. She asked him a simple question and before he knew what was happening, he was telling her everything. She'd just sat there, a calm smile on her face.  
  
He came to the end of his increasingly more frustrated diatribe, glaring at her. She arched her fingers and leant forwards calmly. “This is what you're gonna do.”  
  
-  
  
Harvey booked himself into the next LSAT, forced himself to buy some more suits and read everything he could find on Pearson Hardman. By the time he went to bed that night, Harvey had all the pieces in place. Jessica's demand that he be enrolled in Harvard Law by the fall and Harvey found himself back in control. All he'd had to do was promise his soul to her.  
  
After three months in the mail room and a one-seventy-nine in the LSAT, he moved into the Harvard dorms and everything from _before_ faded away.  
  
He thought of that first apartment on occasion, of afternoons in the park coaching, of walking to the music store and back, but those occasions were few and far between. He'd entered a whole new world now and it had no room for memories of animal crackers or marker pens.  
  
*  
  
 _He didn't say anything, just played his part in this new drama. He listened as Mike explained, tried to work out if he remembered him, wondered just how the bright little kid he'd watched grow had become this fucked-up.  
  
Mike's wit was razor sharp, his memory, his intelligence, like something from a documentary. It was almost too good to be true, but Harvey knew those stupidly big eyes and the messed up hair and the smirk when he proved him wrong. It took all his effort not to reach out and bump fists when he saw the Hearts game on the screen.  
  
But then everything had been said and he couldn't go any further. He went to the door, checked the rest of the douches there for interviews and he felt himself smothered by unrelenting blandness. The sharp, explosive presence that Mike had been only made it worse.  
  
As he turned back, he already knew how this would end._

**Author's Note:**

> I know, I know - surely Mike would remember him? I haven't decided whether he blocked out everything but his parents from that bit of his life or whether he's just keeping quiet about knowing Harvey because it's not like Harvey's going to say anything!
> 
> That could be an interesting follow-up fic... Hmmmmm.


End file.
